Arthur Munby
Arthur Joseph Munby (19 August 1828 - 29 January 1910) was an English poet and civil servant.Arthur Munby, Victorian Poetry and Poetics Wiki. Wikispaces, Web, Feb. 25, 2017. Life Munby was born in 1828, the eldest of 6 sons and a daughter of Joseph Munby of Clifton Holme Yorkshire,Dobson, 661. a solicitor, by his wife Caroline Eleanor (Forth). He was educated at St. Peter's School, York, and then attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he earned B.A. in 1851 and an M.A. in 1856. He entered Lincoln's Inn on 11 June 1851, and was called to the bar on 17 Nov. 1855.Dobson, 662. For 33 years, from 1858 to 1888, he held a post in the ecclesiastical commissioners' office, retiring at the age of 60. A competent and conscientious official, he travelled widely, was a clever raconteur, and an F.S.A. with a genuine love of antiquity. For many years he was a regular contributor to Notes and Queries; and he was a warm supporter of the Working Men's College, then in Great Ormond Street, where, between 1860 and 1870, he taught a Latin class. He was a member of the Pen and Pencil Club which assembled, circa 1864-1874, at Aubrey House, Notting Hill, under the auspices of Mrs. Peter Taylor. A selection from its proceedings, entitled Auld Lang Syne, was printed privately in 1877, and includes verses by Munby. Munby was known to his friends as an accomplished poet and man of letters. His first volume, entitled Benoni was issued in 1852. 7 years later he was a competitor for the 50-guinea prize offered by the Crystal Palace Company for a poem on the Burns centenary of 1859, when he was one of 6 competitors whose excellence was held to be not far short of that of the winner, Isa Craig. Others of the 6 were Gerald Massey and Frederic W.H. Myers. To Benoni succeeded, in 1865, Verses New and Old, a collection of contributions to Fraser, Macmillan, Temple Bar, Once a Week, and other magazines. In 1880 came Dorothy, a "country story," in the elegiac verse which its writer had employed for his Burns poem. Published anonymously, and dedicated to a lifelong friend, novelist Richard Doddridge Blackmore, its idyllic grace and vivid pictures of country scenes and life obtained for it a recognition which had not been accorded to its acknowledged predecessors. Robert Browning, to whom a copy had been forwarded through the publisher, received it with the warmest admiration, praising especially its signal "exquisitenesses of observation" and consummate craftsmanship; and it was speedily reprinted in America, going into 3 editions in 1882. Vestigia Retrorsum (Rosslyn series of poets) followed in 1891. This included a sonnet which in the previous year had received the diploma of the committee of the Beatrice Exposition at Florence. Vulgar Verses (that is, "verses of common life"), "in dialect and out of it," written under the pseudonym of "Jones Brown" (1891); Susan: A poem of degrees (1893); Ann Morgan's Love: A pedestrian poem (1896); Poems: Chiefly lyric and elegiac (1901); and a final volume, Relicta (1909), make up the sum of Munby's metrical output. To this last collection he prefixed the following Landor-like quatrain: :‘There was a morning when I follow'd Fame: :There was a noonday when I caught her eye: :There is an evening when I hold my name :Calmly aloof from all her hue and cry.’ He also produced a few magazine articles and a compilation entitled Faithful Servants: Epitaphs and obituaries (based on an earlier anthology of 1826), which included "A Historical Preface and a Prefatory Sonnet." Munby died at his little cottage at Pyrford, near Ripley in Surrey, on , and was buried at Pyrford. The publication of his will in the following July disclosed the fact that on 14 January 1873 he had married his servant, Hannah Cullwick, who had died in July 1909. Owing to the refusal of his wife to quit her station, the marriage (ran the will), though known to her relations and to 3 of her husband's friends, had never been made known to his own family. The circumstances supply an explanation of many passages in Munby's poems which must otherwise remain obscure to his readers; and several of the pieces contained in his last volume, Relicta, issued after his wife's death, read in this light, have great beauty and pathos. He left no issue. Writing Munby's poetry is characterised by its absolute sincerity, its scholarship, its technical skill, its descriptive power, and its keen feeling for and close observation of nature and rural life. Outside this, his dominant note may be said to have been what has been called "the glorification of the working woman," with especial insistence on the dignity of manual labour. Publications Poetry *''Benoni: Poems''. London: John Ollivier, 1852. *''Verses: New and old''. London: Bell & Daldy, 1865. *''Dorothy: A country story. London: Kegan Paul, 1880; Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1882. *Vestigia Retrorsum: Poems. London: Eden, Remington (Rosslyn series of poets), 1891. *''Vulgar Verses (by "Jones Brown"). London: Reeves & Turner, 1891. *''Susan: A poem of degrees. London: Reeves & Turner, 1893. *Ann Morgan's Love: A pedestrian poem. London: Reeves & Turner, 1896. *Poems: Chiefly lyric and elegiac. London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1901. *Relicta: Verses. London: B. Dobell, 1909. Edited *''Faithful Servants: Being epitaphs and obituaries recording their names and services. London: Reeves & Turner, 1891. Letters and Journals *''Munby, Man of Two Worlds: Life and diaries, 1828-1910'' (edited by Derek Hudson). London: Abacus, 1974. *''Working Women in Victorian Britain, 1850-1910: The diaries and letters of Arthur J. Munby (1828-1910) and Hannah Culwick (1833-1909). Marlborough, Wilt., UK: Matthew, 1993. ''Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Arthur Munby, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Feb. 24, 2017. See also *List of British poets References * . Wikisource, Web, Feb. 25, 2017. Notes External links *Arthur Joseph Munby at Inspirational Poetry (2 poems) *Munby in A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895: "Doris: A Pastoral," "Flos Florum," "Sweet Nature's Voice" **from Dorothy: A country story: I. "Dorothy", II. "Country Kisses", III. "Dorothy's Room", IV. "Beauty at the Plough" *Arthur Joseph Munby at Poetry Nook (47 poems) ;About *Arthur Munby at the Victorian Poetry and Poetics Wiki *"A Story No One Would Believe: The diaries of Hannh Culwick" by Helen Merrick *[http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/354a Watching Hannah: Sexuality, horror and bodily de-formation in Victorian England reviewed] * Munby, Arthur Joseph Category:1828 births Category:1910 deaths Category:19th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:English poets Category:Poets Category:20th-century poets Category:People from Yorkshire